Catalogue Note

Mike Nelson creates large-scale architectural installations, transforming space with meticulous constructions of found materials. Working with the historical and geographical specifics of a site, he fuses an encyclopaedic range of references into three-dimensional narratives. He borrows from cultural, socio-political, film and literary sources, juxtaposing snippets of information to form an open-ended hybrid fiction that suggests a multitude of possibilities. Among them the cage, the hut or shack, the storage room, the hideout, and the hangout. In addition, his largest installations have been mazelike environments in which viewers proceed through a series of linked rooms that call to mind squalid hotel lobbies, third-world travel agencies, drug squats, and biker bars. Littering his works with pertinent objects, Nelson aims to provoke questioning of individual standpoints and thus relies on the spectator's involvement to continue or complete the scene.